Leadership is not just shaped in boardrooms, nor is it confined to quarterly reviews or KPIs. It matures through lived experience, through ideas that challenge our assumptions, and through the values we absorb from the cultures that shape us.
For me, three books stand out as silent mentors. They didn’t just offer advice or frameworks. They reflected truths I had lived and gave me language for principles that had been growing inside me since my early years in Japan.
Japan taught me that brilliance thrives when discipline, humility, and collective harmony come together. These books reinforced that view and offered new layers of clarity. Each one became a compass at a different point in my journey.
1: Good to Great by Jim Collins
I came across Good to Great during a moment in my career when growth felt linear, almost mechanical. I was delivering results, scaling partner ecosystems, and leading expansion across EMEA. But something was missing. I wasn’t just looking for performance. I was seeking purpose.
Jim Collins’ concept of the Level 5 Leader hit me like a quiet thunder. A leader who combines personal humility with professional will. Not someone who needs to be seen, but someone who gets the job done and credits the team before the self.
It took me back to Japan, where success was never loud, where leaders bowed deeper than anyone else in the room, and where excellence was a quiet discipline rather than a show of force.
This book reminded me that true leadership is forged not in big moments, but in daily discipline. In showing up consistently. In building systems that endure beyond your own presence.
Greatness is not an event. It is a way of being anchored in humility, focused by purpose, and sharpened by discipline.
2: The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu’s The Art of War didn’t teach me how to win battles. It taught me how to avoid them altogether. It made me think differently about positioning, timing, and strategic restraint.
In business, as in war, the terrain often matters more than the weapons. The best leaders are not reactive; they anticipate. They study the field, understand the players, and align their teams long before the competition even realizes a play is being made.
This echoed what I had experienced in the Japanese approach to business: quiet strategy, intentional planning, and an obsession with harmony over confrontation. Winning wasn’t about overpowering. It was about making the right move at the right time, with the right people, and letting the momentum carry the rest.
Strategy is not about domination. It is about alignment, foresight, and creating conditions where success becomes the natural outcome.
3: Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek
Simon Sinek gave me words for something I had always believed: that leadership is ultimately about service. In Leaders Eat Last, he paints a picture of organizations where people feel protected, inspired, and empowered to bring their best.
That resonated deeply.
As a young Moroccan student in Japan, I was the beneficiary of a generosity I can never forget. Japan didn’t just welcome us, it invested in us. It placed us in its most prestigious institutions, gave us tools to succeed, and treated our growth as a shared mission.
That experience shaped how I view leadership. When people feel safe, trusted, and valued, they rise. They surprise even themselves. I’ve seen this in partner teams, in startups, in global alliances. The leader’s role is to clear the path and nurture the flame.
Leadership is not about being served. It is about building the kind of environment where others can thrive.
Connecting the Dots: System, Service, and Strategic Stillness
These books come from vastly different worlds. One is grounded in management science, another in ancient philosophy, and the third in modern organizational psychology. Yet, together, they tell one powerful story.
Good to Great teaches us about discipline and humility.
The Art of War sharpens our sense of alignment and anticipation.
Leaders Eat Last brings it all back to service and trust.
They are not isolated concepts. They are connected.
And they mirror the philosophy I absorbed in Asia: individual brilliance matters, but it is the system that unlocks it. Leadership is not about being the hero. It is about creating the harmony that allows the orchestra to perform.
In every region I’ve worked, whether launching GTM programs in Europe or enabling partners in the Middle East, I’ve seen this principle validated again and again. Strategy alone doesn’t scale. Culture does.
Conclusion: Leadership as a Daily Craft
Leadership is not a title or a milestone. It is a daily craft. It evolves each time you open yourself to a new idea, a new culture, or a moment of introspection.
These books shaped my journey, but more importantly, they reminded me that leadership is less about knowing all the answers and more about staying open to new questions.
Seek wisdom in books, in people, and in the cultures that challenge you. Apply it with humility. Share it with generosity. And watch what happens when others begin to rise around you.